The Airport
At the airport, the gang decided to search for Vincent before going to the hotel. Tifa, Yuffie, Cid and Cloud volunteered to look for Vincent on the beach while the others stayed at the airport to watch their bags.
"I hope he made it. Parachute or not he's still hitting the water" Aeris said.
The others murmered on the subject, hoping their friend was still alive.
"Hey guys...if you wouldn't mind could you please...LET ME OUT OF THIS CAGE!" RedXIII roared, still cramped in his animal cage.
The beach was deserted, no Vincent, nothing but sand, water and squawking seagulls.
"What if he…drowned?" Tifa whispered frightfully.
"Don't say things like that. We'll find him sooner or later" Cid said as he scanned the beach.
"Cid's right, Vincent's pretty tough, it'll take more than water to take him down" Cloud added.
Yuffie wasn't too exited to find Vincent, being responsible for him going into the water in the first place.
"There he is!" Cloud shouted, pointing to a man dressed in red stumbling out of the water…obviously Vincent.
The gang sighed with relief as they ran up to Vincent but stopped in their tracks as they got close enough to see his clothes ripped up from the sharks, an angry and miserable look on his face. His eyes were primed on Yuffie who was nervously backing away.
"Yuffie…you nearly turned me into shark bait…" Vincent mumbled, slowly upholstering his pistol.
"No, no Vincent! It was an accident!" Yuffie cried, almost running for her life as Vincent aimed his weapon.
"Accident my ass! I could've been killed out there!" Vincent roared as he chased after Yuffie, firing wildly at her frantic legs to make her run faster.
"Help! Make him stop!" Yuffie hollered as she sprinted around the beach, Vincent right behind her.
Cid and Cloud actually laughed while Tifa was a bit shocked as she watched. Eventually Vincent grew tired of the game and left Yuffie alone. The gang returned to the airport to grab their. The gang later arrived at the hotel, feeling more pleased upon taking their first look at the room. It was more than large enough for all of them, 9 bedrooms and 12 miscellaneous rooms. It was neat and well decorated. The perfect room for them.
"Awesome!" Cloud exclaimed.
"I love it already!" Tifa said.
"Let's go find our rooms" Aeris said.
The others looked puzzled at Aeris's statement.
"Ummm…we don't have assigned rooms" Yuffie said.
Aeris grinned smugly and said "I know...I call this one!"
Aeris ran into the nearest room, the best one. Everyone felt annoyed by her trick.
"Awww, no fair Aeris!" Cid groaned.
"Don't be a sour-puss Cid, there's plenty of good beds" Aeris remarked.
Barrett went upstairs to find his own room. Cid and Vincent followed while the others stayed downstairs.
"Wow! This is some sick suite we have" Barrett chuckled. "Yo Cid, Vincent check out these rooms"
Vincent and Cid met up with Barrett in a room connected to 2 others.
"This is my room" Barrett claimed, setting his stuff down.
Vincent and Cid took the neighboring rooms; Vincent took the one with the least windows while Cid took the most.
Yuffie and RedXIII fought over a room.
"I saw it first!" Red howled.
"No way! I did!" Yuffie replied sharply.
Finally, Yuffie settled the argument by lying.
"Hey, Red. You know there is another room that's way better than this one" She said.
Red showed a bit of hope.
"Really, where?" He asked gullibly.
A minute later Red was tied to a tree outside the hotel with a food and water dish.
"No respect! I get no respect!" He howled.
Yuffie snickered as she unpacked her stuff in her room.
Cid and Vincent left their rooms and stumbled into the living room.
"Wow, this place ain't shabby in the least" Cid said.
The room included a pool table, 36inch plasma screen TV, dart board, 3 video game systems and a large stereo system. Delighted, Cid jumped onto the couch, Vincent helped himself to a comfy armchair.
"Now this is my idea of a vacation. All we need now is some room service" Cid said, grabbing a small radio set.
"Room service, how can I help you?" The waiter said over the radio.
"Yeah, I'll take a cup of coffee and uh...a pack of smokes, any kind will do" Cid replied.
"Is that all, sir?"
"Hold on" Cid turned to Vincent "You want anything Vince?"
Vincent shook his head.
"That's all" Cid said.
Tifa and Cloud finished unpacking their stuff. They both met up in the hallway with Barrett.
"I'm getting kinda hungry. Let's grab somethin to eat while we're here" Barrett said, his stomach gurgling slightly.
"Sounds good to me, let's go" Tifa said.
"Yeah, I haven't eaten since this morning" Cloud added.
The three of them left the hotel, towards a restaurant a few blocks away.
Cid had just finished a cigarette when he noticed a plane fly past the hotel. He looked out the window and saw Pearl Harbor, a site he dreamed of visiting.
"Thank you god! Hey guys, I'm going down to the harbor for a while" Cid called out, already heading out the door.
Aeris had nothing else to do and she did enjoy the water so she followed, Yuffie went as well….to find out what the Pearl in the harbors namesake meant, hoping to find pearls.
The restaurant
The restaurant was an excellent place to eat but the service was a bit slow.
"What's taking the waiter so long? We've been waiting for 15 minutes" Tifa said.
Barrett was the most unwilling to wait for much longer.
"Hey, hula boy! Get over here and take my order!" Barrett yelled out.
Cloud and Tifa were embarrassed as the people stared at Barrett. The waiter cautiously approached the man, weary of his gun arm.
"Uh…can I help you?" He asked in a shaky voice.
"Yeah, I'll have the roasted sword fish, with the lemon sauce"
"I'll take the stuffed clams" Tifa said.
"Me too" Cloud said.
The waiter wrote down the order but dropped his pen; Barrett became more impatient from hunger.
"Come on, Mr. Luau! Get your ass in gear and get the grub!" Barrett snarled, firing at the ground to hasten the waiters pace.
"Ok! Ok! I'm going!" The waiter cried, barreling into the kitchen.
"Barrett, if you don't relax we're gonna end up in the slammer!" Cloud snapped.
"Ah don't worry bout that, spiky. They won't catch us that easily" Barrett chortled. "Not while I'm around"
Tifa changed the subject on purpose.
"I wonder what the other's are up to?"
USS Arizona Memorial
Cid, Yuffie and Aeris went to the memorial to take some snapshots of the sunken battleship. The female guide happily enlightened them on the Arizona's history.
"For 65 years the Arizona has settled here after being sunk during the Pearl Harbor air raid" The guide said through a microphone.
"Booooring!" Yuffie yawned "Let's find something more interesting"
Aeris and Cid glared at the young Ninja.
"Have some respect, a lot of sailors died on that ship!" Aeris snapped.
Yuffie backed down, but still wasn't fascinated by the site.
"There is still oil leaking from the wreckage so please no smoking" The guide said.
Unfortunately, Cid had already finished a cigarette as he hung over the edge of the memorial. He prepared to fling it away.
"No what now?" Cid asked, not exactly picking up on what the guide said.
"CID! NOOO!" Aeris and Yuffie cried out.
It was too late, the instant the cigarette touched the oil soaked water…KA-BOOM!
The restaurant
The sheer force of the explosion shook the restaurant Cloud, Tifa and Barrett were at not far from the harbor. Dumb-struck the three of them turned their heads to gaze at the enormous fire cloud erupting from the memorial.
"What the hell was that?" Barrett said slowly.
The memorial…or what's left of it
"Oh….no smoking…that's what she said" Cid coughed, covered in black ash as he got up from the floating wreckage of the memorial.
"No #$ fly-boy!" Yuffie hissed.
"Why don't we get back to the hotel before…" Aeris began, cut off by a man on a loudspeaker.
The demolished site was now surrounded by several battleships, their guns primed on the three heroes.
"You there! This is the USS Navy, put your hands behind your head and don't try anything funny!" The admiral called out.
"Too late" Yuffie said dully.
The hotel
Cid, Yuffie and Aeris were lucky, being mistaken for terrorists at first but were released after an explanation of the accident.
"Well, at least they didn't throw us in jail" Cid sighed, yet again lighting another cigarette.
"No, but they did charge us with a $34 million fine for destroying a historical memorial, thanks to your careless chain smoking" Yuffie growled.
Cid's eyes went wide, his cigarette dangled and dropped from his lips.
"34 MILLION DOLLARS!" He howled, barely believing Yuffie.
"Yup" Yuffie said frankly. "And since you're technically responsible for the whole thing, you should be the one to pony up that cash".
Aeris was shocked too, well aware that even the entire party combined couldn't even come close to affording the fine. Cid slumped onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling, trying to come up with a plan.
"Ok, ok, lemme think for a sec" Cid stammered.
Aeris and Yuffie crossed their arms, as if blameful towards the pilot as he lay on his bed.
Aeris tapped her foot. "Well?" She said, waiting for Cid's response.
"Hold on, flower girl, I'm trying to…uh...ummmm….awww forget it, we're screwed!" Cid bellowed hopelessly, unable to come up with something.
Yuffie shook her head and left. Aeris stayed though, she sat beside Cid.
"Don't worry Cid, maybe something will turn up" She said soothingly.
"Like what?" He asked dully.
Aeris looked around and grabbed a newspaper, flipping through the pages.
"Well...we could find a way to get the money...in the paper" Aeris said.
Cid rolled his eyes.
"Oh yeah, like we're gonna find a way to make $34 million in the paper and..." Cid immediately stopped at the first glance of an ad in the paper.
Aeris and Cid stared in surprise at a Plane Race ad, a reward of $34 million on the headline and still recruiting pilots.
"Oh...my...god" Cid slowly said.
"It's a miracle" Aeris whispered with glee.
Cid stood up and said "Thank you god! C'mon Aeris! We gotta get our asses down to the airfield!"
End of Chapter